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December 30, 2013

Some Quick Charts: Metals etc.

Last week the high beta stuff was back in play. The rare earth elements and metals. Oh, and don't forget the shippers. If I've been right about anything lately it was that the shippers had bottomed. DRYS is very correlated with the index. It's a good one. One of the stocks I've had my eyes on lately is former net-net Infosonics IFON. The stock is usually very thin but a few days ago I noticed it was in-play as the volatility and volume suddenly appeared. So it's no longer in net current asset territory, however, it's moving lately. They got a notice of failure to maintain the Nasdaq'a minimum price per share above $1. Other than that I don't know of any significant news around the time the surge began.















Another flag is starting as it consolidates from that huge run the other day.

ENG is consolidating and this looks like a long flag here. The stock is up so much over the last 6 months that it seems like buying would be chasing. This is just such a perfect flag here that any break above it could get some good follow though I would imagine. We'll see though. ENG has a nice balance sheet.














Tasman Metals TAS is a junior resource company engaged in the acquisition and exploration of rare earth elements and tungsten in Scandinavia. TAS has a great chart going. It's in a nice slow uptrend and just tested trend support and held on volume. This is going higher. Over 1.10 soon.

December 11, 2013

What I Use for Stock Screens and a Trading Watchlist

Everyday after the market has closed I try to run though atleast 80 to 100 charts with my custom scans on Stockfetcher.com. I just use pure technical and statistical screens. I don't screen any fundamentals on Stockfetcher. For fundamentals these days I just us Graham Investor and look at NCAV stocks.

A perfect scenario when I'm scanning is to find a good looking chart first on Stockfetcher that also is a net current asset stock or deep value around net tangible assets. There continues to be a lot of stocks moving in the alternative energy industry. I've had Plug Power PLUG keep popping up in scans but I missed the last big run. I'm still watching it though. Fuel Cell FCEL has a good chart going too. If I were going to be daytrading tomorrow I would have ETRM on watch with a long bias. This is a very clean flag right here.














For possible position trades

I really like Vapor Corp VPCO. They sell electronic cigarettes. Electronic cigs are a winning industry of the future. It looks poised to breakout here again.

Delcath Systems DCTH is hovering right around net current asset value. On the balance sheet there was about $25 million in net current assets. The market cap is right around there here at $.24 a share. It's in breakdown mode so more lows look like they are coming.

Star Scientific STSI has had some bad news lately. I see it as a contrarian play in the low $1 a share area. This stock in the 10 years I pulled up price history in yahoo has always bottomed around $1 a share.

November 12, 2013

Wandering in Deep Value Land




As many of you know Benjamin Graham had a famous style of investing that sought to purchase deep value stocks selling for large discounts to their net current asset value. It's also called the cigar butt approach. You find these cigar butts laying around and sometimes they are good for one last puff. There are different kinds of deep asset value stocks. There are the cheap for a good reason and then there are the cheap with good potential. The deep value companies in industries that typically turn into deep value traps are biotech and semi-conductors. So many of these have traded for huge discounts to net current assets and even had some profitability but the stocks never come around.
Some of the best net current asset stocks I've seen tend to be in businesses with simply better business fundamentals. A lot of these will even have a "brand moat" they can in-circle around their little castles while working to bring the company back from the gutter. An example of one of these former net current asset stocks that turned around was sports retailer Finish Line years back.
The first stock I am going to look at today is SkyPeople Fruit Juice (SPU). It is in China so I proceed with caution. SPU trades on the Nasdaq and has a market cap of $51 million. It is in net current asset deep value territory because the company has $66 million in net current asset value. I simply took the $200 million in current assets and subtracted the 36 million in total liabilities. So, we are at a discount to NCAV. I bring this one up because cash has been extremely stable.
The next one is Books a Million (BAMM). BAMM has a market cap of $36 million and net current asset value of $21 million. We are not in NCAV land yet but this is something to watch. The stock currently trades at $2.46 per share and NCAV is $1.4 a share. Net tangible asset value is $6.50 a share.
Disclosure: no position in SkyPeople Fruit Juice SPU or Books a Million BAMM at time of writing.

October 16, 2013

Thoughts on Markets During This Political Event

With all the talk of a possible currency semi-crisis from a default I really don't see any markets taking that threat seriously. The US dollar index is still pretty far from its two year lows. This even considering all the quantitative easing that has been going on since those lows. The news media of course blows any movement in the major indices like the Dow Jones out of proportion. It really hasn't been that volatile. 100 point swings! Ohh my! Today saw one of the bigger spikes in the VIX up about 16%.

There are still a lot of stocks in play out there hitting some highs. Something entertaining happened the first week of October. A lot of people thought Twitter's IPO ticker symbol was TWTRQ. TWTRQ in fact was a pink sheet company called Tweeter Home Entertainment. The stock ran up 1,000% on huge volume.

I've noticed a lot Chinese stocks are in play lately. This company called Vision China Media is up so much here. To much I think. It's going supernova now and I believe there is going to be a lot to short once it starts to break a previous days low of the day.

Disclosure: No position in VISN, long TVIX

September 6, 2013

Follow Up on the Baltic Dry Index and Shippers

I made a post on the Baltic dry Index early this year as it looked like it was possibly forming a bottom. Some people believe the index to be an economic leading indicator. I did some subsequent posts on some shipping stocks. Well, the bottom finally came on the Baltic Dry Index and it looks like a bullsih consolidation. It has just so slightly broken out of the trading range it has been in all year. I put up a chart that shows the breakout of the range and retest. We've just retested and it's still moving strong here. Shippers like ESEA, PRGN, DRYS have some very nice momentum charts. A lot of them are coming off high flags like GNK, BALT and SBLK. My favorites are Euroseas ESEA and Dryships DRYS.

August 16, 2013

VIX Setup and Market Direction

After one heck of a run in the major indices this year it's time for a pull-back. At the least a healthy consolidation. I drew up the charts for this post about a day ago and the VIX spiked 12% since then. Briefly, the VIX I believe should spike and the vehicle I like for it is ticker symbol (TVIX) Velocity Shares Daily 2 X long VIX. We are still around the bottom of the trading range for VIX as the chart below shows. Also, there is a lot of room for a pull-back in the S&P 500 as the trend line below shows. So, a correction should ensue. Another major turn of events that very well could and should prompt a pull-back is the FED decreasing its bond buying which they have hinted at lately.

July 15, 2013

Solar and Alternative Energy Stocks

The alternative energy sector is continuing to perform well. I found a couple small companies with good charts that I like. Primarily I like the charts. Jinko Solar (JKS) is one of the solars I posted on Twitter awhile back and it ran 17% today on good volume.

The first new one is Ballard Power Systems (BLDP) with a market cap of around 200 million. BLDP sells fuel cells which is a very promising alternative energy. The stock price just broke out of a triangle consolidation.

The second one I like is Suntech Power (STP). STP is a 250 million dollar company that also just broke out of a long triangle. Both of these stocks look ready to keep running.

July 7, 2013

MEET Flag Setup

I've had MeetMe Inc. ticker MEET on my watchlist since it made that big run about a week ago. It's started a flag on Fridays run with light sell volume on the flag and looks poised to continue to run again. I am going to put a buy stop order in at 1.87 a share. I also added LEE XXII JKS to the watchlist.

July 6, 2013

Trading Range Breakout For Crude Oil

This is a followup to the post I did on crude oil in June. The triangular consolidation on crude had been forming for a long time. Crude finally broke out of the ascending triangle. This is a very bullish chart still and I wouldn't be surprised to see a 110 retest. Triangles are very powerful chart signals. I drew up a new chart and I posted it below. The trend line breakdown I circled was very telling of what direction it was heading. That was definitely a failed signal.

I sold my KWT solar etf position for a slight loss at $46. I didn't get an ideal entry and didn't like the price action so a stop loss is a stop loss. I'm thinking of uploading some video posts in the near future here. I'm looking for a good desktop video software so I can show what I'm talking about simultaneously.

June 25, 2013

Net Net SORL

I recently looked through a lot of NCAV net-net's. These are stocks with market caps below net current assets. The most compelling recent net-net I noticed is a company called SORL Auto Parts.

SORL Auto Parts (SORL) is a Chinese company that develops, manufactures and distributes automotive brake systems and other key safety related auto parts to automotive original equipment manufacturers, and the related aftermarket both in China and aboard. The Company’s products are used in different types of commercial vehicles, such as trucks and buses. SORL is trading below net current asset value and is profitable. It even has earnings growth.

Crunching numbers straight from their annual 10-K filing the market cap is $51 million and net current assets are 124 million. At the current stock price of 2.65 it is trading 41% below net current asset value. Cash has also been stable over the past couple years which is good. Moving from the balance sheet to the income statement we find earnings and a current PE ratio of 4. The PEG ratio (price to estimated earnings growth) is incredibly nice at .89 over the next 5 years. In 2012 the company had free cash flow of around 29 million for the year.

The stock had a big run from 1.80 a share in Sept of last year all the way to 4.00 in February of this year.

June 14, 2013

Crude Oil Chart and Position Update

I'm long KWT the solar ETF from a $49 entry. I have a mental stop loss of $46 a share. Around $38 a share is more of an ideal stop area because it is below the old resistance from Fall of 2012. I run a lot of Stockfetcher scans throughout the week and there are a lot of long setups that keep popping up as the market is still in bull mode. I only scan for stocks priced from pennies to $10 a share. This pull-back in the major indices looks like just a consolidation right now after that huge run-up.

I try and follow crude oil regularly. I've posted up a chart that shows the resistance level that crude has failed to break through over the past 12 months. Along the way from where the price is from the summer of 2012 there has been some triangular consolidation that you can see in the chart.

The short-term chart technicals clearly say to get short right here. If I actively traded CL futures the stance here is definitely short biased. We will have to see what becomes of the triangular consolidation over the coming weeks. It may be very telling.

May 18, 2013

Solar Stocks Play

Solar stocks are continuing to deliver big returns lately. One way to invest in the solar sector is Market Vectors Solar Energy ETF (KWT) or the Guggenheim ETF (TAN). The Guggenheim TAN is more overweight First Solar FSLR and it's price fluctuates more in lockstep with the stock. I like KWT more because it's not so heavily invested in FSLR. I wouldn't be surprised to see more double digit returns from solar as a sector this year. Technically, the charts on solar as a sector look very bullish here. See the picture below. I see a lot more upside. Of course, with big run-ups in all solar stocks across the board some stocks not so worthy of such high multiples will eventually fade out. I remember the big run in solar around 2007 and 2008 and the ridiculous multiples pegged on even the best companies. Some of the PE ratios were totally insane like Nasdaq bubble of the year 2000 insane and of course they eventually came down to reality. I'll be looking for some good shorts eventually after the momentum continues. The momentum is going to continue for awhile though.

May 4, 2013

Deep Value Stock PRLS

I find Peerless Systems (PRLS) to be one the more compelling net current asset stocks I currently know of. The company has a market cap of $10.1 million. There is $4.58 per share in net current asset value and $1.77 in net cash per share. The stock last traded at $3.35 per share. They've repurchased a lot stock over the past couple years. The company has bought in aggregate 482,111 shares of stock or $1.8 million in fiscal 2013. Additionally, from February 1st of this year to April 23, 2013 they repurchased $230,652 of stock.

April 15, 2013

Caribou Coffee Bought By Private Equity For $340 Mil

I recently read that Caribou Coffee was purchased by a private equity company for $340 million. This is surprising yet at the same time not all that surprising to see the second biggest coffee chain next to Starbucks get bought out. People have been speculating on a buyout for years. I've been writing about Caribou Coffee (former ticker symbol CBOU) since 2009 here on the blog. I remember back in either 2009 or 2010 Caribou was actually trading for not that much over its net tangible equity value. The recent purchase price was for over 30 times earnings.

March 8, 2013

YOU On Demand Holdings (YOD) Trade Setup

YOU On Demand (YOD) has had a big sell-off and is down to $1.57 here. I like this stock a lot technically here. This is a very clean and tight symmetrical triangle bull flag. Looking at some fundamentals the market cap is $18 million. There is nothing stellar in the financial statements that I saw. Revenue growth is flat. No net income. I like the balance sheet however. I looked at quarter end Sept 2012 and the past couple years. The balance sheet is healthy. There is about $10 million in tangible assets, $22 million in total assets and total liabilities of just $13 million with just 17K in long term debt. I like what I read on the founding partners bio. This is more of a technical play and I am going to put a buy stop order in for 1.71 a share. If it breaks out above the flag I want to be long. I'm watching the consolidation on BLDP to. Something worthwhile technically may develop or it may not. That's how it goes. I'm also watching PRLS as a pure fundamentals play which has net cash per share of $2.62.

March 5, 2013

Apple AAPL Short Setup

Major indices are holding up very strong around their highs. Although, Apple (AAPL) saw a drop today of 2%. Looking at the long-term chart here one can see how AAPL likes to congest right around resistance and then breakout as it did twice in the chart below. I drew in the red lines where the consolidation occurred.

So, onto the chart now and the short setup. I see this as a particularly attractive short trade because of the failed signal. When the recent gap down got filled it was a bullish move, however, that gap fill failed because we are now back into a breakdown. Rather, the massive fade is just continuing. There is a bunch of support coming up at around 400 so we will see what happens there.

If you are like most novice investors long AAPL then this post may come as incomprehensible to expect Apple stock to drop. I would ask you one question as this applies to anyone who ventures into capital markets. Do you want to be right? Or do you want to make money?

February 21, 2013

Supernova on GNIN

I posted up GNIN last weekend as a short trade watch for Monday or Tuesday. The crash finally came on Tuesday after the stock went supernova all the way over $3.00 a share. GNIN actually printed $.42 a share today! This is a classic pump and dump chart. The volume came in out of nowhere in January and it saw a steady climb that ended in this massive fade. Incredible drop in 3 days.

February 17, 2013

Looking at Net-Net BAMM and Short Watch GNIN

Net-Net BAMM I am currently looking for some net-net's and deep asset value worth writing about. After spending some time going through a stock screen I found Books a Million (BAMM) to be one of the most compelling net current asset stocks I saw for the time being. In looking in the stock market sewers for deep value stocks one can often find somewhat of a diamond like Silver Leaf Resorts SLVF or Adams Golf ADGF were. I'm not sure if BAMM is a diamond but it is something to look at if the stock price gets a lot cheaper. So I think it is something to just watch as the price here at $2.40 is just below net current asset value.

Short Watch Green Innovations (GNIN) Green Innovations (GNIN) traded over $7 million shares Friday and is currently going full zombie. It's up from $1.00 to $2.75 just this month. It's been running everyday and buying volume is eventually going to get exhausted. It's been volatile on the way up so it will be volatile on the way down. To short a momo stock like this it's a bad idea to short when it is green (positive) on the day. It needs to crack the previous days close before it is a short setup. The setup is going to be here very soon. Could even be Monday or Tuesday.

February 6, 2013

Dry Bulk Shipping Stock SHIP

Hello folks. I put this shipper Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. (SHIP) up on Twitter about a week ago after the dry bulk shipper post. SHIP is a low floater. It has a small float and it only has a market cap of $26 million. It has run especially well along with all the other shippers. It's a really good one to trade because of how volatile it is. Very high day range. It had a huge run in January from $1.20 to $2.70 a share. It just printed a hammer off this new flag. Right now it definitely looks like another flag because of the decreasing sell volume I drew the red lines over.

January 28, 2013

Old Net-Net Blonder Tongue BDR On The Move

Former net-net Blonder Tongue Labs (BDR) has 5.5 mil in net current asset value and a market cap of 9.6 million. It has always been one of those perennial net-nets. Always below and around net current asset value. Unfortunately I wasn't watching it lately. It has bottomed out as this chart shows. I circled the failed breakdown. The stock then was in breakdown mode until the lower low turned into a spike bottom. Confirmation of the failed breakdown is where I drew the arrow. Failed signals can be very powerful. The second chart is the beautiful flag it printed. The chart is real bullish here still even though I missed the perfect setups and price. I'm long biased on BDR.

January 23, 2013

Follow Up On Shippers

DRYS made the push I was looking for in the last post. That was the move. FREE still has light sell volume on this consolidation so the set-up is still there on a strong intra-day move on volume. It needs to run to atleast .26 tomorrow before it is a good set-up. It needs to atleast break above the prior days high.

January 21, 2013

Watch The Baltic Dry Index and Shippers

The Baltic Dry Index has formed a little base recently. It is far from a confirmed bottom but it has held this area very well. Very big blocks of shares have come into the shippers that haven't been seen in awhile. I really like NEWL FREE and DRYS with a long bias here. Watch FREE, DRYS and NEWL this week.

January 10, 2013

Gold Technical Analysis January 2013

Gold is still in a secular uptrend. The yearly charts are a lot more choppy. There was a spike bottom in the chart below that is getting retested. I don't see any good signals here because of how choppy the long-term chart is. Crude oil is equally range-bound and in an uptrend the past couple weeks.